Nissan takes orders for $1.1 million GT-R by Italdesign

The car’s exterior will be virtually unchanged from the coupe that was shown at Goodwood earlier this year Photo credit: NISSAN

Jay Ramey is an associate editor with Autoweek, an affiliate of Automotive News.

Automakers are frequently criticized for not putting concept cars and various one-offs created for concours events into production. But every once in a while an actual concept car or design exercise makes the leap from the full-size running prototype to an actual car that someone can buy. And not just in a single copy.

Nissan Motor Co. will do just that by building 50 examples of the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign, which was unveiled earlier this year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the U.K., created as the ultimate expression of the GT-R for the model’s 50th anniversary next year.

In fact, the car’s exterior will be virtually unchanged from the coupe that was shown at Goodwood earlier this year, based on the GT-R Nismo and styled in collaboration with Pininfarina. But with a couple of exceptions: Customers will be able to pick their own colors for their GT-R50, even though the Goodwood example was finished in a special gray color with gold accents, and customers will also be able to specify interior options.

The price for owning one of these 50 machines will be proportional to their rarity and technical ability: Nissan says that each will start at about $1.1 million before options and various taxes, depending on country.

That’s a bit of a bargain compared to how much it would cost for an Italian carrozzeria to reskin a GT-R that you gave them for a one-off, but not by much. Still, we have a feeling that all 50 examples will find homes pretty fast, and hopefully it won’t be the kind of collectible that will stay locked in a climate-controlled garage and be taken out to do a couple exercise miles and fluid changes. There are already enough of those.

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